Laud Humphreys: A Pioneer in the Practice of Social Science

The life and work of Laud Humphreys is reviewed in an attempt to assess their effect on American sociology. We focus on the intersections between biography and professional contributions as they emerged from Humphreys'graduate work at Washington University, St. Louis through his years at Pitzer College. The commentary is couched in the theoretical traditions of C. Wright Mills, the sociology of knowledge, and the sociology of sociology.     

Time and risk

Intertemporal choice has obvious similarities with choice under uncertainty. However, because of technical difficulties in mapping results between the two domains, theoretical analysis of these topics has proceeded independently. In this article, we show that, using Rank Dependent Expected Utility rather than Expected Utility as the basic uncertain choice model, numerous analogies between the two fields may be identified and exploited. The key result is the derivation of a natural analogy between risk-aversion and impatience. This permits the reinterpretation of well-known results on stochastic dominance and comparative risk-aversion in the context of intertemporal choice. It is also possible to reinterpret results on intertemporal optimization in order to derive new results for portfolio choice problems under uncertainty.     

Attitudinal effects associated with an environmental hazard

There has been increasing concern over environmental hazards such as toxic waste disposal, but little research has occurred on those effects related to the stress associated with these hazards. Related research has suggested the presence of both behavioral (e.g., headaches, nausea) and attitudinal effects (demoralization, upset, perceived threat, lack of trust). Mediators to these effects were found to include distance from the stressor, frequency of stimuli, gender, age and presence of small children.Four hundred twenty-one persons were surveyed with adaptations from the Hopkins Life Checklist and instruments used in studies of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Effects for the attitudes ofperceived threat, declining qualify of life, anddistrust of authorities were significant for both distance from site and frequency of stimuli. Future anticipation, quality of information and having children significantly affected attitudes, as did age and gender. Implications for policymakers and researchers are also discussed.This study was funded through research grant # 1 RO3 MH39745-01 of the Small Grants Program of the National Institutes of Mental Health, Center for Mental Health Studies of Emergencies.     

Resisting Amnesia in the Countertransference: A Clinical Strategy for Working with Lesbian Patients

Seldom emphasized in clinical writings are the ways in which lesbians construct and revise multiple narratives to create and navigate their lesbian identity within the clinical relationship. Case material is presented to show how the examination of the psychic meaning of the move from lesbian child to lesbian woman can be explored retrospectively through the collaborative therapeutic relationship set forth in the constructivist approach. To address the potential countertransference problems for clinicians working with this population, the concept of countertransference amnesia is introduced to describe a particular type of forgetting that reproduces within the clinical relationship the subtle forms of discrimination that restrict lesbian expression within the culture at large. This work also seeks to liberate lesbian identity formation from previous explanations and to demonstrate the construction of a lesbian identity as a psychically organizing process, which integrates inner and outer experience and allows the girl or woman to adapt to the social world.     

Assessing children's relationships with pet dogs: A multi-method approach

Relationships with pet dogs are thought to provide substantial benefits for children, but the study of these relationships has been hindered by a lack of validated measures. Approaches to assessing the quality of children's pet dog relationships have tended to focus on positive relationship qualities and to rely on self-report questionnaires. The aim of this study was to develop and test multiple measures that could be used to assess both positive and negative features of children's relationships with pet dogs. In a sample of 115 children ages 9–14 years who were pet dog owners, we assessed six qualities of pet dog relationships: Affection, Nurturance of Pet, Emotional Support from Pet, Companionship, Friction with Pet, and Pets as Substitutes for People. All qualities were assessed with child questionnaires, parent questionnaires, and child daily reports of interactions with pets. We found substantial convergence in reports from different observers and across different measurement approaches. Principal components analyses and correlations suggested overlap for many of the positive qualities, which tended to be distinct from negative relationship qualities. The study provides new tools which could be used to test further how relationships with pets contribute to children's development.     

Bootstrap Methods for Markov Processes

The block bootstrap is the best known bootstrap method for time‐series data when the analyst does not have a parametric model that reduces the data generation process to simple random sampling. However, the errors made by the block bootstrap converge to zero only slightly faster than those made by first‐order asymptotic approximations. This paper describes a bootstrap procedure for data that are generated by a Markov process or a process that can be approximated by a Markov process with sufficient accuracy. The procedure is based on estimating the Markov transition density nonparametrically. Bootstrap samples are obtained by sampling the process implied by the estimated transition density. Conditions are given under which the errors made by the Markov bootstrap converge to zero more rapidly than those made by the block bootstrap.